Portland, Maine /  by Julian Chokkattu

I'm still here! I haven't posted since last April, but that's largely because I haven't gone on many long vacations -- that doesn't mean I haven't traveled.

I went to Portland, Maine last summer, and took a lot of photos with a variety of phones for work. Most of them never got published, so I decided I may as well post them now. I did the same late last year with a short trip to San Francisco, so I'll post those photos soon as well.

While I have traveled to other countries since then, the trips have been for work and I've used my phone to take photos more than my DSLR. I put off uploading them to this site, but I realized there's no point in only uploading photos from my DSLR, as smartphones can take excellent photos. I'll be uploading more from these smaller trips soon. I'll be heading to Japan later this year, and I plan to use my DSLR extensively during my trip. 

Here are a few of my favorite photos from Maine -- some are taken with a DSLR. 

Madrid, Spain /  by Julian Chokkattu

Ms. Chan and I visited Madrid for three days in the first week of March. We spent three days in Barcelona after Mobile World Congress last year, so this year we decided to try Madrid. We stayed at a lovely Airbnb in Lavapies, which was incredibly close to almost everything. 

I edited the photos some time ago, but haven't had a chance to post them. Enjoy!

France [Video] /  by Julian Chokkattu

It's been nearly four months since my trip to France (time flies!) but I finally compiled my footage into a short little video for fun. 

In the end, I'm not really sure why it took me so long. Looking at all the footage I had was intimidating, but once I got into editing it I found myself looking for more B-roll. 

If you liked this, I have similar videos of my trip to Iceland, Barcelona, and more. I'm going to Madrid in a few weeks, so hopefully I can churn out a video of the city much faster. 

Lyon, Chamonix, and Grasse /  by Julian Chokkattu

The second half of our trip began with an early morning train to Lyon, where we spent two days. We then rented a car to drive down to Chamonix, where we saw some gorgeous mountain ranges. Unfortunately we got there a little later than we thought and couldn't take a cable car up, or parachute down. 

It's a gorgeous town, and it's a must see just for the stars at night!

We then drove down to Grasse, where we saw plenty of perfume shops and factories, and on our final night in France we had a nice dinner in Cannes. 

Paris, France /  by Julian Chokkattu

If my Instagram hasn't been any indication, I went to France for nine days with Ms. Chan. The first stop was Paris, where we stayed in a small Airbnb apartment in the Batignolles neighborhood in the 17th arrondissement.

We didn't want to lug our bags around on the first day, since we couldn't check into the Airbnb until around 8 p.m., so we used this service called Eelway. It was remarkably useful -- we booked it before we took the flight, and when we landed our Eelway representative was waiting for us at the airport in Paris. He took our bags, and he said someone will meet us with our bags at the Airbnb apartment around 8 p.m. And another Eelway representative did! It was a fairly flawless service.

Paris was definitely my favorite part of the trip. There's just something about the city that leaves you wanting more. The rich history, the hustle and bustle that's reminiscent of New York City, did I mention the history? Wherever we went, I couldn't help trying to find the year the building we were standing in was constructed. (The oldest may have been 15 B.C. in Lyon!) Ms. Chan and I went so far as to ask our Airbnb host average rent prices in the Batignolles area -- but we should probably learn a little French first.  

Anyway, the first day we walked from Gare de Châtelet Les Halles past the Louvre, through Place de la Concorde, over the Pont Alexandre III bridge, and through the Champs-Élysées. We arrived at the Arc de Triomphe, but we skipped going up to the top that day and headed to our Airbnb.   

On the second day, we headed straight for the Eiffel Tower. Guess what? The wait, which usually can be up to two hours or more, was about 5 minutes. 

We then headed out to Le Pré aux Clercs for some excellent lunch, and then walked across Pont des Arts, the famous "love-locking bridge." Sadly, we found out that the locks were no longer there, but were moved to another location. We still put ours on a gate near the bridge. We headed to the Louvre, but it was closed on Tuesdays, so we went straight to the Notre-Dame. 

We rounded off the night with a boat tour, and then we stopped at the Arc de Triomphe to go all the way to the top. It wasn't as difficult as we had made it out to be -- we definitely recommend it. 

And on the final day in Paris, we got espressos to go from the cafe near our Airbnb, and took a 20 minute walk to Montmartre. We saw Sacré Coeur first, and then headed down the steps to the main area for some food at La Bossue. We then took a Metro to the Louvre for a brief visit.

After the Louvre, we headed to the Catacombs. And after that, we found out the Montparnasse cemetery had already closed -- a shame! We grabbed dinner at a restaurant called La Cantine du Troquet, and made out way back to the Airbnb (we had an early train to Lyon the next day.)